This is a 3,000 word report of the demonstration against the occupation of Iraq held in Rome last Saturday along with an analysis of the Italian media and a biography of Silvio Berlusconi.

Report of anti-war demonstration in Rome September 24th 2005

September 24th 2005 saw demonstrations around the world against the continued occupation of Iraq. Protests were held in many American cities including Washington DC, San Francisco and Los Angeles while in Europe there were political protests in London, Paris, Madrid and Rome. I attended the Spanish demonstration outside the US Embassy in Madrid and my report can be seen on: http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/world/2005/09/324409.html

The Rome protest of the same day was attended by some 10,000 people. Anti-war feeling is particularly high in Italy which saw the world’s biggest demonstration before the war started on February 15th 2003 when 3 million turned out to voice their opposition. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has pledged to withdraw Italian troops from Iraq but seems to be dragging his feet over the issue. He got a reminder of what the vast majority of Italians want last Saturday. The news in Italy over the last few days has of course been dominated by the Parmalat corruption scandal:

Parmalat fraud trial is suspended

Calisto Tanzi has apologised for the collapse of Parmalat The trial of Calisto Tanzi, founder of scandal-hit Italian dairy giant Parmalat, and other company executives has been suspended on its first day. The court wants to consider whether to add civil suits by investors damaged by the company's collapse in 2003. The trial comes two years after a black hole of 14bn euros ($17bn; £9.5bn) was found in the firm's accounts. Mr Tanzi and 15 others are charged with false accounting, market rigging,and misleading Italy's market regulator. The case sent shockwaves through Italy where Parmalat is a household name.

Angry investors Crowds of investors who had lost money because of the scandal gathered outside the court as the hearing began. Inside the building, the courtroom was packed. Mr Tanzi arrived about an hour after the trial began and took a seat in the front row, his team of three lawyers and a phalanx of policemen shielding him from cameras and journalists. He told the court he had been held up in traffic. After a morning taken up with court proceedings, the trial was adjourned to 2 December to allow the court to consider whether to combine the criminal case with a number of civil suits by the victims of the Parmalat collapse. Invented assets The firm is alleged to have misled investors by claiming it had offshore assets that did not exist. It is said to have borrowed money on the strength of these invented assets, before the spectacular collapse that left investors reeling. Also in the dock are three companies - the Italian offices of Bank of America and of audit firms Deloitte & Touche and Grant Thornton.

What we want is to help reconstruct faithfully what happened at Parmalat

Giampiero Biancolella, Mr Tanzi's lawyer

Q&A: Parmalat's problems Timeline of troubles

They are accused of helping a group made up of senior Parmalat managers and a handful of external bankers and auditors to conceal the true state of the company's finances. In June, a Milan judge handed down jail sentences of up to two-and-a-half years to 11 people, mostly ex-Parmalat executives, who included the firm's former finance chief Fausto Tonna. Mr Tanzi is expected to testify in the trial, and blame the banks for covering up the scandal. "He knows what his responsibilities are," said Giampiero Biancolella, one of Tanzi's attorneys. "What we want is to help reconstruct faithfully what happened at Parmalat so the judge can make a decision based on that reconstruction." Nick Moser, of corporate legal experts Taylor Wessing, said Mr Tanzi would try to convince the court that he was "too far removed" as head of the company to be responsible for the scandal. "Mr Tanzi is almost certainly going to continue the line he has adopted throughout, which is 'I was not aware of what was going on'," Mr Moser told Radio Five Live's Wake Up To Money programme. Restructuring programme Shortly before Christmas in 2003 Parmalat admitted that a 3.95bn euros account - which its Cayman Islands-based subsidiary Bonlat claimed to hold with Bank of America - did not exist.

Parmalat plans to re-float in Italy Not long afterwards Parmalat, which employed 36,000 people in more than 30 countries before the crash, filed for bankruptcy protection. It was then that the huge debts were discovered, and 135,000 bondholders and stock market investors in Italy lost heavily. Parmalat has undergone a major restructuring since then. It is run by government-appointed administrator, Enrico Bondi, who has launched the series of lawsuits against banks and accountancy firms.

BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU!

Anyone visiting Italy and wanting to use an internet point, or cafe, will need to take along their passport – and be prepared for a major invasion of their privacy. ITALY: Anti-terrorist legislation prompted by the London bombings in July imposes a string of new obligations on the managers of businesses offering the public access to communications. As of this week, they must obtain - and, according to some interpretations, photocopy – the identity documents of anyone wishing to access the internet, send a fax or make a telephone call.

Not only that. They must also supply the police with records of the times at which customers enter and leave the premises and which computers or telephones they use.

Owners now need a licence to run an internet point or call shop, and to get one they have to provide detailed information about their business, including a floor plan of the premises.

Commercial communications centres have repeatedly cropped up in investigations into international terrorism. The first arrests in connection with the 2004 Madrid train bombings were made at a call shop in the Lavapies district of the Spanish capital, which has a large immigrant community. France is reportedly planning to introduce similar legislation.

Andrew Pitt from Liverpool, who runs a combined call shop and internet cafe in Venice said his business had already been hit by the Italian law.

"The problem is that tourists come along without their passports. Today, we have lost at least 15 customers because they didn't have any identification", Mr Pitt said.

"About 70% of our customers are American or British and they're just not used to this sort of thing. Italians don't usually complain because its normal to be asked to provide identification here."

Illegal immigrants in Italy will be deeply reluctant to provide identification, if indeed they have any. Most arrive without passports to ensure they are not repatriated.

An internet point manager in a part of Rome which has a large immigrant population told the daily Corriere della Sera that since the law came into effect about one in five of those entering the premises had refused to provide identification and left. At the city's biggest internet point, a spokesman was quoted as saying he had lost Italian customers too.

But that was because they used the facilities to visit web sites that were "let us say a bit special".

(I had to show my passport to use this computer and when I couldn't produce it I showed my library card, my credit card, store card and finally medical card which thye grudgingly accepted. Could this happen soon in Britain?)

THE ITALIAN MEDIA

The main newspapers in Italy are:

CORRIERE DELLA SERA

Corriere della Sera is an Italian daily newspaper printed in Milan. It is the most famous Italian national newspaper, and among the oldest, founded on Sunday, 1876 March 5 by Eugenio Torelli Viollier. It is still among the three most popular newspapers in Italy, its main rival being Eugenio Scalfari's La Repubblica. The newspaper's offices have been in the same buildings since its founding, so it is also known as "the Via Solferino newspaper", by the name of the street where it is still located. As the name indicates, it was originally printed in the evening (sera). The Italian novelist Dino Buzzati was a journalist at the Corriere, as well as many famous Italian writers such as Italo Calvino. The "third page" (a page once entirely dedicated to culture, in the Italian tradition) contained a main article, named "Elzeviro" which has been signed by all the directors and the major novelists, poets and journalist of the country. The Corriere is currently part of the Rizzoli group, now named RCS (Rizzoli-Corriere della Sera). It is supposedly influenced by the majority owner, the Fiat group, and by the conservative industrialist Cesare Romiti who leads RCS. The newspaper has however opposed Berlusconi's government on several issues, such as the war in Iraq. The newspaper suffered from the Propaganda Due scandal in the 1980s; the secret Italian Freemasonic lodge had the newspaper's director Di Bella and former owner Angelo Rizzoli on its member lists. In some regions it is sold at newsagents bundled with regional editions titled Corriere di/della..., for example Corriere della Lombardia.

LA STAMPA

La Stampa is one of the best-known and most widely sold Italian daily newspapers, published in Turin and distributed in Italy and in other nations in Europe. It is currently owned by the Agnelli family. It was founded in 1867 with the name Gazzetta Piemontese. In 1895 the newspaper was bought (and by then directed) by Alfredo Frassati, who gave it its current name and a national perspective. For criticising the murder of Giacomo Matteotti, he was forced to resign and sell the newspaper to Giovanni Agnelli. It launched a website in 1999.

LA REPUBBLICA

La Repubblica is one of the best-known and most widely sold Italian daily newspapers. It was founded in 1976 by Eugenio Scalfari and it has since kept a centre-left political stance. Since September 12, 1987, each Friday it is issued with the weekly supplement Il Venerdì. It is now directed by Ezio Mauro. The Mondadori editing group originally owned "La Repubblica" but after Silvio Berlusconi acquired the group, the editorial office declared the new owner inadmissible and De Benedetti acquired the newspaper instead.

ITALIAN TELEVISION

Italian television seems to consist of endless game shows and big brother type programmes with little in the way of serious documentarires or political discussion. Here are the main channels:

BERLUSCONI, SILVIO Italian Media Mogul and Politician While still a student, Silvio Berlusconi, the son of a Milan bank official, displayed two of the main qualities that marked his later career as a media tycoon; business acumen and a penchant for performing. While preparing a dissertation on "The Newspaper Advertising Contract", for his honours degree in law from Milan University, he helped finance his studies by working as a crooner on cruise ships. On graduating, he was quick to recognise the entrpreneurial opportunities opened up by the wave of post-war affluence that rolled across Italy in the 1960s. He moved into the booming contruction sector, and in 1969 borrowed 3 billion lire to build a prestigious dormitory suburb, Milano 2, on the edge of the city. His decision to install a cable network in the complex in 1974, was his first entry into a television marketplace that was about to undergo a massive expansion. The historic monopoly over national broadcasting enjoyed by the public sector organisation, RAI (Radio Televisione Italiana) had been confirmed by Law 103, passed in 1975. But the following year, the Constitutional Court ruled that it did not extend to the local level. This decision legitimated the mushrooming "pirate" television operators and attracted new investors with around 700 commercial stations springing up around the country. Berlusconi was quick to see the enormous potential in this explosion of activity and in 1975 he set up a holding company, Fininvest, to manage his expanding interests. In 1979 he established a major film library, renting titles to stations on the condition that they carried advertising purchased through his Publitalia subsidiary. He rapidly became the dominant force in a market that saw television increase its share of national advertising from 15% in 1976 to nearly 50%, ten years later. By 1983, Publitalia's advertising revenues had overtaken those of RAI and by the end of the decade they accounted for around 70% of all television advertising expenditure. His power within the new commercial television marketplace was further cemented by his own moves into station ownership. Between 1977 and 1980, he created a nation-wide network, Canale 5, creating the illusion of a single channel by dispatching video tapes by courier for simultaneous transmission. Programming was unashamedly populist relying heavily on imported films and soap operas and home produced game shows. In 1981, the Constitutional Court revised its earlier decision and ruled in favour of national private networks providing there were strong anti-trust provisions. Berlusconi took full advantage of this opening, buying out one of his main competitors, Italia 1, in 1982, and acquiring his only other serious challenger, Rete 4, in 1984. These moves confirmed his domination of commercial television earning him the nickname Su' Emittenza ("His Transmitter-ship", a pun on the traditional title for a Cardinal). His power did not go unopposed however. In October 1984 magistrates ruled that his channels breached RAI's monopoly right to broadcast a simultaneous national service, and shut them down. But he had powerful political friends, including the Prime Minister, Bettino Craxi, who returned from overseas early to sign a decree re-opening them. Even in a climate of growing enthusiasm for deregulation no other European government had allowed a single individual to accumulate such concentrated control over terrestial television. This political support established an effective duopoly in national television for the rest of the decade, giving Fininvest's three commercial networks and RAI's three public channels an overall share of between 40-45% each. Reviewing this situation in 1988, the Constitutional Court sent a warning to parliament urging them to introduce strong anti-trust provisions at the earliest opportunity. Parliament's response, the Broadcasting Act of 1990 (known as the "Mammi Act" after the Post and Telecommunications Minister who presented it) fell some way short of this. The parliamentary debate was bitter with the former chair of the Constitutional Court arguing that the Act disregarded the Court's anti-trust instructions and was far too sympathetic to private television power. The new law legitimated the status quo. Berlusconi was allowed to keep his three broadcasting networks and Publitalia's domination of the television advertising market remained untouched. However, new cross ownership rules did require him to sell 90% of his shares in the country's first pay-TV venture, Telepiu, and to divest his majority stake in the Milan daily newspaper, Il Giornale Nuovo, which passed to his brother Paolo. Critics of his communicative power were unimpressed and in 1992 media workers mounted a strike to protest against Finivest's domination of the advertising market. Renewed pressure for tougher anti-trust legislation concided with a worsening fiancial situation within Finivest, as the group absorbed the costs of recent acquisitions. In 1986, Berlusconi had bought the football club AC Milan and spent substantial sums on making it into the most sucessful Italian club of all time. In 1988, he acquired the Standa department store chain, one of largest in Italy. And, after an expensive and bitterly fought contest with Carlo de Benedetti of the computer company Olivetti, in 1990, he had made a major move into newspaper, magazine and book publishing with the purchase of the Mondadori group, giving him control of 20% of the domestic publishing market. These outlays led to a 12 fold increase in the group's debt, which stood at $2 billion by 1994. Faced with continuing demands for the break-up of his television empire, he siezed the the political initiative and at the beginning of 1994, announced that he would contest the forthcoming general election. Luciano Benetton, head of the clothing group, spoke for many when he wryly observed that, "Silvio Berlusconi's love of politics is motivated by fear of loosing his television interests." His vehicle was an entirely new party, Forza Italia (named after the football chant "Go Italy") in coalition with the federalist Northern League and the remnants of the neo-fascist MSI movement, renamed the National Alliance. During the campaign he relied heavily on orchestrated support from his press and television interests leading the distinguished journalist, Indro Montanelli, to resign the editorship of Il Giornale in protest. He projected an image of a man untouched by the old corruption, in touch with the aspirations of young Italy, and in favour of low taxation, free markets and personal choice. His coalition of the Right won 43% of the popular vote in the March 1994 poll and formed a government with Berlusconi as Prime Minister. There were immediate allegations of conflicts of interest. He had tried to forstall these at the start of his election campaign by resigning from all managerial positions and handing chairmanship of his major company to his old piano accompanist, Fidele Confalonieri. But since he and his family still held 51% of the group's shares, critics were unconvinced. These suspicions, coupled with the defection of the Northern League, led to fall of his administration after nine months. His exit from office coincided with other shifts in his personal circumstances. In July 1995 he announced that he had sold a 20% stake in his new subsidiary, Mediaset (covering his television, advertsing, film and record interests) to three outside investors (including the German media magnate, Leo Kirch) for $1.1 billion. More shares were sold later to banks and other institutions, reducing his holding to 72%. Then, two days before the April 1996 election, he announced a public flotation that would eliminate his majority control. His political standing was also under threat. His carefully cultivated image of a man outside the corrupt old guard had been dented by revelations that in 1978 he had joined the the secretive masonic lodge, P2 (Propoganda 2) that had formed a powerful state within a state with connections to the armed forces, secret services, banks and government. Then in January 1996 he was called before magistrates in Milan to answer charges that he had bribed financial police to present a favourable tax audit of his corporate accounts. This helped to sour his return to politics in the General Election in April 1996. Although he was elected as a member of parliament, his right wing bloc was forced to conceed control of government to the Olive Tree Alliance, Italy's first successful centre-left coalition since the war. Whether or not he remains a central figure in Italian politics and business in the future, Berlusconi will be remembered as the man who in the space of just 25 years, built a conglomerate that rose to dominate Italian commercial television, and to become Europe's second largest media empire (after Bertelsmann of Germany) and Italy's third biggest private company, and who used his communicative power and his flair for showmanship to launch a new political party that gathered enough votes to secure his election as Prime Minister in just four months. Overall, his career over the last 25 years stands as an impressive illustration and warning of the power of concentrated media ownership in a lightly regulated marketplace.

Berlusconi was born in an upper middle-class family in Milan; his father Luigi worked at a small bank, Banca Rasini, of which he became general manager in the 1960s before retiring. Silvio was the first of three children, the others being Maria Antonietta Berlusconi (born 1943) and Paolo Berlusconi (born 1949), now both entrepreneurs. Silvio takes a special pride that his father started his career in Banca Rasini as an employee and left as general manager. After completing his secondary school education at a Salesian college, which he worked his way through as a singing waiter, he then studied law at the Università Statale in Milan, graduating in 1961. Berlusconi, did not serve the standard one-year stint in the army which was compulsory at the time. The reason for this is unknown.

Business career

Silvio Berlusconi with Bettino Craxi, at the time prime minister of Italy. Berlusconi's business career began in the construction business in the 1960s. His first entry into the media world was by means of a cable television station, Telemilano, designed to service his Milano 2 residential development. Soon afterward, he formed his first media group, Fininvest, and from there he expanded to a country wide network of local TV stations which would all broadcast the same materials, forming, in effect, a single national station. This was illegal at the time, since Italian law reserved the monopoly of TV broadcasting to the public television. In 1980 he founded Italy's first private national network Canale 5, shortly followed by Italia 1 bought from The Rusconis (1982) and Rete 4 (1984) bought from Mondadori. A strong help to his successful effort to create the first and only Italian commercial TV empire is due to his link with Bettino Craxi, at that time the secretary-general of Italian Socialist Party and the prime minister of Italy. For many years, the three TV channels owned by Berlusconi were not allowed to broadcast news and political commentary, yet they formed the main alternative to the three State-owned channels Rai Uno, Rai Due and Rai Tre. Only in the 1990's was the government monopoly on information ended. In 1995, Berlusconi sold a portion of his media holdings, first to the German media group Kirch (now bankrupt) and then by public floatation. In 1999 Berlusconi expanded again in the media business in a partnership with Kirch called the Epsilon MediaGroup. Berlusconi's main group, called Mediaset, comprises three national television channels, which hold approximately 45% of the national viewing audience; and Publitalia, the leader Italian advertising and publicity agency; Berlusconi also owns Mondadori, the largest Italian publishing house which publishes Panorama, a news magazine; he has interests in cinema and home video distribution firms (Medusa and Penta), insurance and banking (Mediolanum) and a variety of other activities. His brother controls Il Giornale, and his wife Il foglio, both center-right newspapers which print a lot fewer daily copies then the more popular "Corriere della Sera" and "La Repubblica". Berlusconi also owns the football club AC Milan which some think has been an important factor in the success of his political career ("Forza Italia" means "Go Italy!", a slogan often used as a football chant.

POLITICAL CAREER

In the early 1990s, the two largest Italian majority Parties, the Christian Democrats (Democrazia Cristiana) and the Socialist Party (Partito Socialista Italiano) lost much of their electoral strength due to a large number of judicial accusations of corruption for their foremost members (see the Mani Pulite affair). This led to the expectation that elections would be won by the Democratic Party of the Left (Partito Democratico della Sinistra), (the former Communist Party (Partito Comunista Italiano) and the main opposition party) unless there was a strong alternative: Berlusconi decided to enter politics on a platform centered on the defeat of communism. Berlusconi founded Forza Italia only two months before the 1994 elections; he formed two separate electoral alliances, with Lega Nord (Northern League) in northern Italy colleges, and with Alleanza Nazionale (National Alliance) in the center and south; he launched a massive campaign of electoral spots on his three TV networks and he won the elections, with Forza Italia ranking first party with 21% of popular vote. He was appointed Prime Minister in 1994, but his term in office was short because of the inherent contradictions in his coalition, between Lega Nord, a regional party with a strong electoral base in northern Italy, which was at that time oscillating between federalist and separatist positions, and Alleanza Nazionale, a nationalist party which only then started dropping references to fascist ideology and symbols. From the beginning, Italian public opinion was divided: from the left, the new entry of Berlusconi was seen as an attempt, by a star of the old policy corruption system to bring it on despite of all the accusations and evidences. From the right, Berlusconi was hailed as the "new man" that would have saved the country from the communist horde, bringing the public bureaucracy to new efficiency and reforming the state top to bottom. Others have claimed that his entry was rather designed to help him avoid the bankruptcy of his companies due to large amounts of debt [3]. In December 1994, Lega Nord left the coalition claiming that the electoral pact had not been respected, forcing Berlusconi to resign from office and moving the majority's weight to the centre-left side. The coalition of opposition parties (now including Lega Nord) then replaced him. In 1996, the ad-interim coalition formed by Lega Nord and centre-left was replaced, after a new election, by a centre-leftist government (without Lega Nord) led by Romano Prodi. [4]

Silvio Berlusconi, Romano Prodi, António Vitorino and Jan Peter Balkenende In 2001 Berlusconi again ran as leader of the centre-right coalition Casa delle Libertà (House of Freedoms) which includes Alleanza Nazionale, UDC (Christian Democrats), Lega Nord and other parties. His success in this election led to him becoming Prime Minister once more, with the coalition receiving 45.4% of the vote for the Chamber of Deputies (Italian's Lower House), and 42.5% for the Senate-House (Italian's Upper House). Casa delle Libertà has done less well in the 2003 local elections in comparison with the 2001 national elections, and, in common with many other European governing groups, in the 2004 elections of the European Parliament, gaining 43.37% support. Forza Italia's support also reduced from 29.5% to 21.0% (in the 1999 European elections Forza Italia had 25.2%). As an outcome of these results the other coalition parties, whose electorals results were more satisfactory, asked Berlusconi and Forza Italia for more influence in the government's political line. In the last local elections (April 3 & 4, 2005), the opposition The Union (formerly known as Olive Tree) won easily 12 of 14 regions where there was a vote; Berlusconi's coalition held in only two regions (Lombardy and Veneto). Two parties (UDC and NPSI) left the Berlusconi government. Berlusconi thus presented to the President of the Republic the dissolution of his government on April 20, 2005, after much hesitation. On April 23 he formed a new government with the same allies, but with some changes in the ministers and in the program. A key point required by UDC (and to a minor extent by AN) was to reduce the focus on tax reduction the government had had, because this was considered incompatible with Italy's financial situation. There have been harsh criticisms on Berlusconi's choices: the ministry of Health, previously occupied by Girolamo Sirchia, a famous doctor, has been given to Francesco Storace, who, only a few weeks earlier, lost the regional elections in Latium. Another controversial move was the nomination of Giulio Tremonti as Vice-Prime Minister. Tremonti had been the Minister of Economy just few years earlier, but was forced to resign. He is strongly supported by Lega Nord, but opposed by UDC and AN.

POLICIES

As he founded his Forza Italia party and entered politics, Berlusconi claimed to believe in "freedom, person (the individual), family, enterprise, Italian tradition, Christian tradition and love for weaker people" [5]. Forza Italia could be considered a liberal party, although references to liberalism were more common in the initial years of the party development than are now; some consider Forza Italia a populist party. However, Forza Italia officially joined the European People's Party in 1999, theoretically choosing to be identified mainly as a Christian Democratic party. Internal democracy in the party is very low and internal dissent virtually nonexistent. There are no known factions or currents; at present three party conventions have been held, all of them resolved in a Berlusconi showdown, and his re-election by acclamation. Every man in the party apparatus is appointed by Berlusconi himself: for all these reasons, its political opponents call Forza Italia "the plastic party". Some allies of Berlusconi, especially Lega Nord (Northern League) push for a strong control of immigration and getting their support has required some changes in policies from Berlusconi. Berlusconi himself has shown some reluctance to pursue such policies as strongly as his allies might like. [6] Even so, a number of measures have been taken, but the effects are controversial. The government, after introducing a controversial immigration law (the "Bossi-Fini", from the names of Lega Nord and Alleanza Nazionale leaders) is searching for the cooperation of both European and other mediterranean countries to face the emergency of the large number of immigrants trying to reach Italian coasts on old and overloaded ferries and fishing boats, risking (and, often, losing) their life. The Berlusconi government has had a strong tendency to support American foreign policies despite the policy divide between the U.S. and many other founding members of European Union (Germany, France, Belgium), a break from the traditional Italian foreign policy. Italy, with Berlusconi in office, became a substantial ally to the United States of America in 2003 as Berlusconi supported the American/British-led Iraq War to oust the regime of Saddam Hussein. Berlusconi, in his meetings with United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan and U.S. President George W. Bush, said that he pushed for "a clear turnaround in the Iraqi situation" and for a quick hand-over of sovereignty to the government chosen by the U.N. Italy has some 2,700 troops deployed in Southern Iraq, the third largest contingent there after the American and British forces. The government confirms the agenda to reduce taxes and simplify the taxation system for both privates and enterprises (Berlusconi himself engaged personally during his electoral campaign). The opposition claims these programs are not realistic in the present economic trend. The EU Commission also pushes for a strict budget control, to meet the European mandatory standards. It must be noted the Italian State has historically a large debt (at the present time 106% of GDP) whose cost heavily burdens the annual budgets. A key point of the government program is the planned reform of the Constitution, an issue the coalition parties themselves initially had significantly different opinions about, with Lega Nord insisting on the federal reform (devolution of more power to the Regions) as the condition itself for remaining in the coalition; Alleanza Nazionale pushing for the so-called "strong premiership" (more powers to the executive), meant as a counterweight to the federal reform, to preserve the State unity; UDC asking for an electoral law not damaging small parties (more proportional) and being generally more willing to find a compromise with the moderate wing of the opposition. Difficulties in arranging a mediation caused some internal unrest in the Berlusconi government in 2003, but then they were mostly overcome and the law (comprising power devolution to the regions, Federal Senate, "strong premiership" and to be complemented with a new electoral law) was passed by the Senate in April 2004; it was slightly modified by the Chamber of Deputies in October 2004, and now is in process of being examined by the Senate again. Its final date of approvation is projected to be around July 2005, and, if passed, will then be subject of a popular referendum (necessary in the Italian law for constitutional reforms which don't meet a two thirds majority).

Silvio Berlusconi meeting with Rick Perry, the Governor of Texas

Legislative actions Berlusconi's government passed many pieces of legislation. Within the 2001-2003 period, the government issued: 332 bills, 184 approved laws and 148 halfway. Among the most far-reaching legislative actions and reforms attempted by the second Berlusconi government were: • The reform of the labour system, strongly opposed by labor unions, • The reform of the school system, • The law on large public works (MOSE project saving city of Venice, High speed railways Turin-Milan-Florence-Rome-Naples and Turin-Verona-Venice, Bridge between Sicily and Italy, underground in Rome, Parma, Naples, Turin, Milan, a strong modernisation of Highways and Water structures in South of Italy, project "Highways on the sea", etc. ) • The federalist reform, with the end of "Perfect equivalence between Chamber and senate", now at the parliament • The reform of Justice • Abolition of Donation and succession taxes • The support of US foreign politics, in Afghanistan and Iraq • The abolition of military service for all male Italians (only volunteers from 2004) • The infamous SIAE stamp, to be sticked on any medium containing copyrighted software, sounds, or motion pictures sold in Italy. Many Italians refused buying anything with this sticker on it throughout May 2005. The Urbani decree, named after the Ministro per i beni e le attività culturali Giuliano Urbani, punishing whoever circulates, even via file sharing software, a film or other copyrighted material or part of it, or enjoys it with the same technology, with a 1,500 € fine, the confiscation of the instruments and the material, and the publication of the measure on a national daily paper and a periodical about shows. It also requires Internet service providers to signal sites violating the copyright law and to prevent the access to such sites, punishing with a 50,000 to 250,000 € fine those ISP who don't conform.[[7], in Italian] In origin, the penalty was a 15,000 € fine plus 4 years of imprisonment. This decree was fiercely opposed by the Italian Internet community: many Italian Internet users decided as a protest to refuse buying any copyrighted material stamped by SIAE (Società Italiana degli Autori ed Editori, "Italian society of authors and publishers" — the Italian equivalent of RIAA) throughout the month of May 2004 (the decree also proposed to furtherly increase taxation in favour of SIAE — see next paragraph), and not to use the Internet during Tuesday 25 May 2004. That day, the Italian Internet traffic was from 50% (at 06:00) to 7.4% (at 17:00) lower than the previous Tuesday. [[8], in Italian] Some ADSL users even wrote letters to their ISPs threating to cancel their subscriptions if they enacted the decree. Soon the minister promised to revise the bill. Also, well-known (because regulating aspects of every-day life) legislative acts were: • The increase in taxation on virgin data storage devices — this enacted an European Union directive. For example, until 29 April 2003 on a 700 MB CD-R there was a 0.01 € taxation in favour of SIAE. Such a CD costed about 0.55 € in average. The taxation was increased to 0.25 €, causing the price of such CDs to rise to about 0.79 €. This officially in order to compensate authors and publishers for gains lost due to piracy, but many critics pointed out that most regular virgin discs are used by common users for personal use, whereas people selling pirate copies often buy much cheaper contraband discs. • The reform of rules regarding drivers' licenses, which (according to the Italian police department) led to a 14.5% decrease in car accidents, or an 18.5% decrease of lethal car accidents. • The anti-smoke campaign with the prohibition of smoking in offices, pubs, restaurants and other public places, which came into effect in January 2005. • The law regulating assisted fertilization, actually banning free research on staminal cells, pre-implant diagnosis, and "eterogal" fertilization, forcing women into being implanted after the embryo creation, recognising embryo as a rights bearer. The abrogation of the most controversial items has been the object of an unsuccessful popular referendum called in June 2005 by left wing parties, including Radicals, Left-Wing Democrats, Socialists, Communists. In a controversial move, the Berlusconi government also presented a new media reform legislation. Among other things, such legislation increased the maximum limit on an individual's share of the media market, allowing Berlusconi to retain control of his three national TV channels. The legislation also enabled the roll-out of digital television and internet based publishing, and hence his government claimed it resolved the problem of conflict of interest and his media monopoly "by opening up more channels". The law was initially vetoed by the President of the Republic, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, on charges of being anti-constitutional, but it was then forced into law by the Parliament. The new pensions' law, issued on July 2004, raised the minimim age for retirement and added incentives for delayed retirement. In Italy the pensions system is facing financial difficilties due to an increasing average age of the population. Berlusconi has forced through the Parliament an overall constitutional reform to deepen the current federal form of the State and strengthen the power of the Prime Minister. This reform is disputed, because it has been imposed only by pressions of former separatist party Lega Nord, and without an adequate sharing with the opposition. As of May 2005, the reform has been approved by the Parliament and is in wait for the 2nd approval. Other pieces of legislation include: • the depenalization of fake balance sheets • the suspension of penal trials for high constitution authorities during their terms (this law has been declared unconstitutional)

Silvio Berlusconi, summer 2004

CONTROVERSY

Berlusconi is a controversial figure at times. In one widely reported incident, upon being asked how he would have dealt with his conflict of interests by the German member of the European parliament Martin Schulz (SPD) during Italy's presidency, Berlusconi reacted with the words "Mr. Schulz, I know there is a producer in Italy who is making a film on the Nazi concentration camps. I will suggest you for the role of Kapo. You'd be perfect." The reference to the Nazis caused an uproar in the 626-seat assembly and a short diplomatic crisis between Italy and Germany. On another occasion, he stated that "Benito Mussolini's regime hadn't killed a single person" and that Mussolini "just used to send opposers on holiday", thus apparently denying or dismissing a long series of fascist crimes, from the murder of Giacomo Matteotti to the infamous fascist concentration camps (Rab, Gonars, etc). Berlusconi later claimed that he did not mean to white-wash Mussolini, that he only reacted to a comparison, which he felt unfair, between the fascist dictator and Saddam Hussein. One of Berlusconi's strongest critics in the media outside Italy is the British weekly The Economist (nicknamed by Berlusconi "The Ecommunist"). The war of words between Berlusconi and the Economist has been infamous and widely reported, with Berlusconi taking the publication to court in Rome and the Economist publishing open letters against him [9]. In any event, according to The Economist, Berlusconi, in his position as prime minister of Italy, now has effective control of 90% of all national television broadcasting. [10] This figure includes stations he owns directly as well as those he has indirect control of through his position as Prime Minister and his ability to influence the choice of the management bodies of these stations. Berlusconi's extensive control of the media has been linked to claims that Italy's media shows limited freedom of expression. The Freedom of the Press 2004 Global Survey, an annual study issued by the American organization Freedom House, downgraded Italy's ranking from 'Free' to 'Partly Free' [11] on the basis of Berlusconi's influence over RAI, a ranking which, in "Western Europe" was shared only with Turkey (2005). Reporters Without Borders states that in 2004, "The conflict of interests involving prime minister Silvio Berlusconi and his vast media empire was still not resolved and continued to threaten news diversity".[12] In April 2004, the International Federation of Journalists joined the criticism, objecting to the passage of a law vetoed by Carlo Azeglio Ciampi in 2003, which critics believe is designed to protect Berlusconi's alleged 90% control of national media. [13] Berlusconi's influence over RAI became evident when in Sofia, Bulgaria he expressed his views on the journalists Enzo Biagi, Michele Santoro [[14]], and comedian Daniele Luttazzi after his satiric behaviour and his interview with journalist Marco Travaglio. The four never appeared in any TV shows since then. Left-winged politicians and media refers to this episode as the Sofia Diktat. The TV broadcasting of a satirical program called RAIOT was censored in November 2003 after the comedienne, Sabina Guzzanti, made outspoken criticism of Berlusconi media empire [[15]]. Mediaset, one of Berlusconi's companies, sued the Italian state broadcasting company RAI because of Guzzanti show asking 20 million Euro for "damages" and from November 2003 she was forced to appear only in theatres around Italy. In response to such claims, Mediaset, Berlusconi's television group, has stated that it uses the same criteria as the public (state-owned) television RAI in assigning a proper visibility to all the most important political parties and movements (the so-called 'Par Condicio'). It is also true that while the distribution of newspapers in Italy is lower than most other European countries (100 copies per 1000 individuals compared to 500 per 1000 in Scandinavian countries [16]), the majority of national press, which includes the three italian largest printed dailies, La Repubblica, Il Corriere della Sera and La Stampa, tends to report independently of the Berlusconi government or (in the case of La Repubblica, among the three major newspapers cited above) to be very openly critic of it. Yet the resignations of the director of Corriere della Sera, Ferruccio de Bortoli, were seen as a grasp for more media control from the government. In fact the FNSI, the Trade Union for Italian Journalists, organized a three days long strike to show support to the former director of the newspaper. The conflict of interest issues can be better understood in the context of the structure of control of the state media. The law delegated the presidents of the Chamber and Deputies to elect the president of RAI and the board of directors. In practice the decision is a political one, which generally results in some opposition representatives becoming directors, but with a majority in the hands of the government candidates; typical numbers used to be two directors and the president for the parlamentarian majority, and two directors for the opposition. There is also a parliamentary supervisory commission, where the president is customarily a member of the opposition. During the Baldassarre presidency of RAI, the two opposition directors and the one closer to UDC left fro internal disagreements, usually centered on censorship issues. RAI continued to be run by a two-man team (mockingly nicknamed by the opposition i giapponesi, "the Japanese" after the Japanese soldiers that kept fighting in the Pacific ocean after the end of World War II). Controversy concerning Berlusconi's conflicts of interest are normally centered around the use of his media and marketing power for political gain; however, there is also controversy regarding financial gains. When RAI was being run by a 2-man team appointed by the presidents of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate (both in Berlusconi's coalition), the state broadcaster lost a significant market share to the rival Mediaset group, owned and run by the Berlusconi family, which has led to large personal gain. Berlusconi has many financial interests, and it is inevitable that a lot of legislation can have a direct financial impact on his fortune. His government has passed some laws that have shortened statutory terms for tax fraud. Berlusconi responded to critics by saying that he would not take advantage of these himself, but later he did. Critics claim that this situation indicates that laws about conflict of interest and anti-trust are in practice completely ineffective. Berlusconi himself claims to have resolved his conflict of interest: for example, he cites the fact that he is neither longer president of Mediaset, nor 100% owner.

LEGAL INVESTIGATIONS OF BERLUSCONI

Silvio Berlusconi undoubtedly has a rather long record of judicial trials, as several crimes have been alleged to him or his firms (see also the following subsection on Berlusconi's trials), including false accounting, tax fraud, corruption and bribery of police officers and judges. Some of Berlusconi's close collaborators, friends and firm managers have been found guilty of related crimes, notably his younger brother, Paolo, who in 2002 accepted to pay 52 million euros as a plea bargain to local authorities for various charges including corruption and undue appropriation17. However, no definitive conviction sentence has ever been issued on Silvio Berlusconi himself for any of the trials which have concluded so far; in some cases he has been fully acquitted of the alleged charges, in others he has been acquitted with dubitative formula (not proven), or he was acquitted because the statute of limitations expired before a definitive sentence could be issued; in one case a previously granted amnesty extinguished the crime (perjury) before the sentence came into effect. The Italian legal system allows the statute of limitations to continue to run during the course of the trial. Consequently, the dilatory tactics adopted by Berlusconi's attorneys (including repeated motions for change of venue) served to nullify the pending charges. Some of the suspects on Berlusconi's person arise from real or perceived blank spots in his past. Notably, in 1981 a scandal arose on the discovery by the police of Licio Gelli's secret freemasonry lodge (Propaganda Due, or P2) aiming to move the Italian political system in an authoritarian direction to oppose communism. A list of names was found of adherents of P2, which included members of the secret services and some prominent personalities from the political, industrial, military and press elite, among which Silvio Berlusconi, who was just starting to gain popularity as the founder and owner of "Canale 5" TV network. The P2 lodge was dissolved by the Italian parliament in december 1981 and a law was passed declaring similar organizations illegal, but no specific crimes were alleged to individual members of P2. Berlusconi later (1989) sued for libel three journalists who had written an article hinting at his involvement in financiary crimes and in this occasion he declared in court that he had joined the P2 lodge "only a very short time before the scandal broke" and "he had not even paid the entry fee". Such statements, however, conflicted with the findings of the parliamentary commission appointed to investigate the lodge's activity, with material evidence, and even with previous testimony of Berlusconi, all of which showing that he had actually been a member of P2 since 1978 and had indeed paid a 100,000 Italian liras entry fee. Because of this he was indicted for perjury, but the crime was extinguished by the 1989 amnesty. Berlusconi's career as an entrepreneur is also often questioned by his detractors. The allegations made against him generally include suspects about the extremely fast increase of his activity as a constructon entrepreneur in years 1961-63, hinting at the possibility that in those years he received money from unknown and possibly illegal sources. These accusations are regarded by Berlusconi and his supporters as empty slander, trying to undermine Berlusconi's reputation of a self-made man. Frequently cited by opponents are also events dating to the 1980s, including supposed "favor exchanges" between Berlusconi and the former prime minister Bettino Craxi, indicted in 1990-91 for various corruption charges; and even possible connections to the Italian Mafia, the latter accusations arising mostly from the curious circumstance that he employed for two years, as a stableman in his Arcore villa, the wanted mafia boss Vittorio Mangano4. Berlusconi acknowledges a personal friendship only to Craxi, and of course denies any ties to the Mafia, stating that he was absolutely not aware of who Mangano really was when he employed him. Heated debate on this issue was recently (2004) triggered again when a Forza Italia senator and long time friend of Berlusconi, Marcello Dell'Utri, was sentenced to 9 years by the Palermo court on charge of "external association to the Mafia" 5, a sentence on which Berlusconi refused to comment. On some occasions, which raised a strong upheaval in the Italian political opposition, laws passed by the Berlusconi administration have effectively delayed ongoing trials on him, allowing the statute of limitations to expire, or stopped them entirely. Relevant examples are the law reducing punishment for all cases of false accounting; the new law on international rogatories, which made his Swiss bank records unusable in court against him 6; the law on legitimate suspicion, which allowed defendants to request their cases to be moved to another court if they believe that the local judges are biased against them 7,8; and most importantly the lodo Maccanico law, passed in June 2003, which granted the highest five state officers, including the Prime Minister, immunity from prosecution while in office2. This law froze Berlusconi's position in the SME-Ariosto trial in which he was accused of having corrupted judges in previous legal rulings regarding his partecipation in the public auction of the state-owned food company SME in the 1980s. However, the trial was not frozen for other defendants, and the former lawyer of Berlusconi's main firm (Fininvest) and former Italian defence minister, Cesare Previti, was sentenced to 5 years although the crime was reduced from corruption of judges to simple corruption 9,10. In January 2004 the Lodo Maccanico was nullified by the Constitutional court as it was ruled to be in conflict with the Italian constitution. Subsequently Berlusconi has declared his intent to re-introduce the law using the correct procedure for constitutional modification. Because of these legislative acts, political opposers accuse Berlusconi of passing ad personam laws, to protect himself from legal charges; Berlusconi and his allies, on the other hand, maintain that such laws are consistent with everyone's right to a rapid and just trial, and with the principle of presumption of innocence (garantismo); furthermore, they claim that Berlusconi is subject to a judiciary persecution, a political witch hunt orchestrated by politicized (left-wing) judges 11. For such reasons, Berlusconi and his government have an ongoing quarrel with the Italian judiciary, which reached its peak in 2003 when Berlusconi commented to a foreign journalist that judges are "mentally disturbed" and "anthropologically different from the rest of the human race", remarks that he later claimed he meant to be directed to specific judges only, and of a humorous nature12. More seriously, the Berlusconi administration has long been planning a judiciary reform intended to limit the arbitrariness allowed to the judges in their decisions (for example by introducing civil liability on the consequences of their sentences), but which, according to its critics, will instead limit the magistrature's independence, by de facto subjecting the judiciary to the executive's control. This reform has met almost unanimous dissent from the Italian judges 13,14 and, after three years of debate and struggle, was passed by the Italian parliament in December 2004, but was immediately vetoed by the Italian President, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi 15, who said some of the passed laws were "clearly unconstitutional". Presently (February 2005) the law is in process of being examinated by the parliament again, taking into account the President's objections of constitutionality. Berlusconi has also been indicted in Spain for charges of tax fraud and violation of anti-trust laws regarding the private TV network Telecinco, but his status as a member of the European Parliament allowed him to gain immunity from prosecution 16.

TRIALS

Main article: Trials involving Silvio Berlusconi

Personality Berlusconi is admired by some Italians for his tremendous success as a businessman; they praise what they consider his innovative ideas and enterpreneurial spirit. His detractors, however, point out that he tends to centralize power upon his person, and this is reflected in the organization of the Forza Italia party. Furthermore, critics often attribute a substantial part of his financial successes to his closeness to politicians that have been later exposed as corrupt (as Bettino Craxi) or even contiguous to the mafia (as Giulio Andreotti, who narrowly avoided a guilt verdict because the statute of limitations had been reached). Another criticism voiced is that he over-reacts to attacks from political opponents. Just about everyone agrees that he cares a great deal about his appearance; in January, 2004, after intense speculation in the media, he admitted he had a facelift [17]. Berlusconi always tries to maintain a gentle, agreeable character with whoever he is talking to. His opponents perceive this as hypocrisy, since he can also deliver strong speeches that at times border on hate, especially when talking about communists. He is known to tell jokes to create a relaxed atmosphere, and trying to make sure everybody enjoys himself in his presence. He is especially careful about talking in intelligible Italian, while many politicians prior to 1992 talked an incomprehensible jargon.

Berlusconi and the "horns" gesture. His sense of humour is perceived to be somewhat coarse, and could be thought to be purposely targeted at the average Italian, if Berlusconi had not been a known figure already before entering politics. In February 2002, at a European Union summit of foreign ministers, Berlusconi, present since a replacement for his previous foreign minister, Renato Ruggiero, had not yet been appointed, made a vulgar gesture (the "corna") behind the head of the Spanish foreign minister, Josep Piqué, indicating he (Piqué) was a cuckold, exactly at the time of the taking of the official pictures. This is a common joke among Italian pre-teens, and many felt it was utterly out of place in an international meeting. He later explained that he "was joking", and he meant to create a relaxed climate, that this sort of meeting were meant to "create friendship, cordiality, simpatia and kind relationships" between the participants, and that he wanted to amuse a small group of bystanding boy scouts. In mid-May 2005, while opening the European Food Safety Authority in Parma (after the location had previously been preferred over one in Finland and Berlusconi had accused Finns of "not knowing what prosciutto is"), Berlusconi claimed that he had to "blow away the dust from my playboy (in English) arts" with the Finnish president, Tarja Halonen, to convince her to locate the EFSA in Parma. This caused criticism from both Italy and Finland, with the Italian ambassador in Finland being called by the Finnish foreign minister. [19]. Sexist jokes are considered bad taste in nordic countries, but are part of a macho image in Italy, and are therefore more accepted, though far from classy.

Mr Fazio's position is looking secure The ruling council of the Bank of Italy has given renewed backing to embattled governor Antonio Fazio, despite high-level calls for him to quit. The board said most members had offered "expressions of faith" in the governor. Senior politicians, including Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, have called on Mr Fazio to resign over the way he handled a controversial bank takeover. He was accused of favouring a domestic bidder in the battle for Banca Antonveneta, but has denied wrongdoing. Thursday's meeting was considered vital to Mr Fazio's future, since only the bank's superior council has the power to remove him.

We can't ask for his dismissal on the basis of a media campaign which the politicians have climbed on board

Paolo Blasi, Bank of Italy councillor It would have required a two-thirds majority of the council's 13 members to remove Mr Fazio from office. However, most of the council's members - drawn largely from business and academia - are believed to be close to the governor. Before the meeting began, the AGI news service quoted council member Paolo Blasi as saying that Mr Fazio's position would not be discussed. "We can't ask for his dismissal on the basis of a media campaign which the politicians have climbed on board," he was reported as saying. Political pressure The central bank governor has come under pressure to resign following allegations that he tried to block Dutch bank ABN Amro's takeover of Italy's Banca Antonveneta. Mr Berlusconi has claimed that the governor's continuation in office is "not compatible with national credibility", but has admitted that he does not have the power to oust him. Mr Fazio was appointed for life and the Bank of Italy is independent from government.

Silvio Berlusconi says he has tried to persuade Mr Fazio to step down Separately, the Bank of Italy said reports that Mr Fazio would be questioned as part of an ongoing judicial inquiry into the Antonveneta takeover were incorrect. Media reports on Wednesday claimed the governor would be interviewed by magistrates investigating alleged insider dealing by two bankers who acquired shares in Antonveneta. A Bank of Italy spokeswoman said the claims were "without foundation". The Bank of Italy also confirmed that it had formally revoked its approval of Banca Popolare Italiana's bid for Antonveneta which originally triggered the banking scandal. The decision enables prosecutors to lift a restraining order on Popolare's 29.5% stake in Antonveneta which has been frozen for several months. The stake is set to be bought by Dutch bank ABN Amro.